Wedding scarf

Wedding scarf usually is a red cloth, in traditional chinese wedding ceremony, wedding scarf covers the bride's head to her shoulders, until the ceremony is over.

In old fashion, the wedding scraf will be put off untill the groom has said bye to all of their friends and relatives and ready to go to bed with his lady. But now, mostly will put it off in the ceremony.



Wedding scarf custom is not only popular in Han nation, bu also in some minority nation like Mongolian nation




Mongolian nation wedding in Inner Mongolia province.
>> Read More...

Chinese Wedding Custom

Left is a Modern portrait about Tang Dynasty wedding custom

Proposal & Betrothal

Most time there has a media person(called, Mei Ren, most time is a old woman), then the two families pick an auspicious date as the Betrothal Day. This is a formal meeting between the parents of the perspective bride and groom. The groom's family presents various proposal gifts that represents fertility and prosperity in Chinese Culture, which is also known as "Grand Gift". Thus, the two are considered officially engaged.


Pre-Wedding Ritual

After the betrothal meeting, both families will make announcement to their relatives and friends by sending out "Double Happiness Cakes" along with invitations. The bride's family then prepares dowry and give a list of the dowries to the groom's family. The groom's family performs "setting bridal bed" ritual... The groom's family decorates the bridal house for the wedding, while the bride's family prepares household accessories, mostly bedding and dining necessities, for the new home.

Wedding Day Ceremony

On the day of the wedding, two families performs "hair dressing" ritual and "capping" ritual for the bride and groom respectively. Then the groom sets out to the bride's home, and he will inevitably be blocked at her door by her friends, and the bridesmaids will play door game with the groom and his attendants. The bride and groom will then leave her home and proceed to meet the groom's parents for Tea Ceremony. The wedding date ceremony ends with a feast which features elaborate Chinese wedding food.

Wedding Night Ritual

The night of the wedding, the bridal room will lit dragon and phoenix candle to drive away the evil spirit, the newlyweds will drink wine from two cups tied together with a red string, arms crossed from each other. This is the formal wedding vow in Chinese culture. Then the bride will be offered dumplings that's boiled half-raw. The pronunciation of "raw" is the same as giving birth to children, a indication of family prosperity

Post-wedding Customs

The next morning of the wedding, the bride should get up early and make a meal for the groom's family to demonstrate that she is well-nurtured. Three days after the wedding, the groom and bride will go back to visit the bride's parents




>> Read More...

Yan Di,炎帝,

Yan Di, was leader of tribe with first name Jiang, and the tribe also known as Shennong tribe, it means they are professional at agriculture. It was say, Yan Di very smart when he was still a boy, and he do a lot of good things to people. Yan Di invent some farmer instrument and teach people about planting crops. To heal diease, he find many herbs and was seemed as the beginner of Chinese Traditional Medical and Medicine. He made musical instruments with five string, and enable people know etiquette.

First, Shengnong tribe living in ShanXi province, but they moved to east and conflict with another tribe, Huang Di, and they two become Chinese's ancestor. it's another story.

Yan Di made great contribution on agriculture, medical, so he was deemed as a great hero in the begin time of Chinese culture. Now, Chinese people allways says, "we are son of Yan and Huang", here Yan means Yan Di. And Yan Di also was deemed as one of the three great hero of Chinese along with Fu xi and Huang Di.


>> Read More...

Han fu - Chinese Costume

Stylish, beautiful, and downright cool, Chinese clothing has influenced everything from the Japanese Kimono and Korean Hanbok to outfits in movies like Star Wars. Research indicates that Chinese clothing started to take shape during the Xià 夏 dynasty (2200 BC),

and lasted until the Míng 明 dynasty (1368-1644).when it was forcibly replaced by Manchu styles (1644-1911). Pre-Qīng clothing is referred to as Hàn fu (汉服 sometimes called 衣裳 Yī shang), or the traditional dress of the Han Chinese people. Many people equate “traditional” Chinese clothing to the popular Qí páo (旗袍) or Cheongsam (长衫), however these are Manchu styles and not the form of clothing worn by Chinese people for thousands of years.

Han Fu is buttonless clothing, features wide sleeves and layered loose robes


Nowdays, there is many Han Fu fans all over china, and it becomes more and more. many fans wear Han Fu everydays, at work, at home, on buses, and tell people the story about Han Fu.





Following are Chinese styles worn throughout the dynasties: (source: http://pandagator.info/blog/?p=33)

Qin and Han:

Tang:

Song:

Yuan:

Ming:

>> Read More...

Huang-di Yellow Emperor黄帝

"Huang di" also "Yellow Emperor", was one of the legendary Chinese emperors. Huang di was lived in about 2600BC, he was borned in XinZheng, Henan province, and buried at QiaoShan(also named as HuangLing, this was named after Hunag di), ShanXi province. It was said, Huang di was borned at the second day in the second month in Chinese Calendar.


Huang di was deemed as the main ancestor of all Han and some Minority nation. His victory in the war with Chi You at the Battle of Zhuolu is seen as the establishment of the Han Chinese nationality.

Chinese said, Huang di is the inventor of writing, the compass, the pottery wheel, and the breeding of silkworms(actually, this was said invented by Huand di's wife).




Huangdi has been credited with written (collaborated by his physician) "Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内經 Inner Canon of Huangdi)", the principles of Traditional Chinese medicine. However, modern historiographers generally consider this book to be compiled about 200BC, more than 2000years later.(But it doesn't means Huang di done nothing on medicine, the book was named after Huang di, it would be some kind of commemorate).

Huangdi Neijing


>> Read More...

Fuxi--- Creator of Trigrams Symbols

Fuxi, also Fu Hsi( 伏羲, 庖牺, 庖犧) is the legendary god in the mythology of ancient China. He is also called Taihao(太昊) or Taihao Fuxi. He was born in TianShui, GanSu province, and has a snake tails like his sister "Nv wa"



Legend says, by imitating the spider, he created a net to catch fish and animals. He invented the musical instrument, Se, a plucked instrument with 50 strings, and constituted the Eight Diagrams used in divination. He married his younger sister, Nv wa, and started the reproduction of offspring one generation after another. Thus they became the ancestors of the Chinese.






Fuxi and Nv wa (portrait found in old tomb in AShiNa XinJiang province)

It was say, one day, a dragon horse emerged from the Yellow River, Fuxi invented "He Tu"(means River Picture) according to marks on its back. Then Fuxi invented the arrangement of the Trigrams (八卦 bāgùa). Because "He Tu" and Trigrams was seemed as a very important core part of Chinese culture, so Fuxi was seemed as the beginner of Chinese culture.



Dragon Horse(loong ma 龙马)




River Picture(He Tu, 河图)



In the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220), Fu xi and Nv wa were carved on stone as figures with both human heads and bodies of the snake. They are human-shaped from the waist up, but are snake-like below. The lower bodies are entangled together with each other.

>> Read More...

Qi xi jie --- A Chinese Valentine's Day

The Qi Xi Jie occurs on the 7th Day of the 7th Month of the Chinese Calendar.

As any Chinese grandmother will tell you, the ancient celebration of true love dates back centuries when Zhinv (织女 Weaving Girl) fell in love with a young farmer named Niulang(牛郎 cow boy) at NanYang, HuBei province. Sadly, there is a classic complication - our heroine here is the granddaughter of the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang!


Even though the law strictly forbids relationships between mortals and immortals, the rebellious young couple fall in love and eventually marry anyway - when the unthinkable happens, and they has a girl and a boy. Upon the discovery of their relationship, the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang forces Zhinv to return to heaven, never to see Niulang again.


But Niulang refuses to give up. He was helped by a old cow, flies to Zhinv's side (with the help of a magic ox) only to have the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang then uses a hairpin to draw the Milky Way across the sky to separate the couple forever.

And after that Zhinv and Niulang must separated for 364 days of a year - except for Chinese Valenine's Day - when the Lady Queen WangWuNiangNiang takes pity on them by sending a flock of magpies to bridge the gap between the lovers and reunite them. (and then magpies was seemed as a bode well to lovers and couples)

In Chinese, "7" pronounced Qi, and this pronounciation also means "fantastic", so "the 7th Day of the 7th Month" is the most fantastic day in the year, so an old times, In the night of Qi xi jie, girls and ladys gazing stars and prays to be smart and skillful, and prays for a happy marriage.

This folktale was started about 2000 years before at Han Dynaty.

Today, on Chinese Valentine's Day, school children are asked to search the heavens where Zhinv can be found in the star Vega east of the Milky Way, and for her beloved Niulang, who steadfastly waits for her in the constellation Aquila, west of the Milky Way.

According to legend, on Chinese Valentines Day magpies can scarcely be seen, since they are spreading their wings to form the bridge in the heavens to reunite the couple once again. The evening of Chinese Valentine's Day is traditionally reserved for star gazing, and the classic retelling of the tale of Zhinu and Niulang.



>> Read More...